books

i remember the time
i came home from
work and all of my
books were packed
in boxes. salinger,
hemmingway, faulkner,
steinbeck and
o'connor, tucked
and stacked neatly
into cardboard
boxes while my ex
wife wrote with a
magic marker on
the top in bold
black letters.BOOKS.
what the hell, i
said what's going
on here? i'm giving
away your books,
you have too many,
some of these are
thirty years old.
you have hundreds
of them and you've
already read them.
maybe the poor would
like to read them
as well. i needed
more room on
the shelves for
my porcelain
figurines anyway.
apparently she had
never heard of
the public library.
and this was one
of many many clues
as to why we
aren't together now.